Package Summary

Documented

roslaunch is a tool for easily launching multiple ROS nodes locally and remotely via SSH, as well as setting parameters on the Parameter Server. It includes options to automatically respawn processes that have already died. roslaunch takes in one or more XML configuration files (with the .launch extension) that specify the parameters to set and nodes to launch, as well as the machines that they should be run on.

Package Summary

Released Continuous integration Documented

roslaunch is a tool for easily launching multiple ROS nodes locally and remotely
via SSH, as well as setting parameters on the Parameter
Server. It includes options to automatically respawn processes
that have already died. roslaunch takes in one or more XML
configuration files (with the .launch extension) that
specify the parameters to set and nodes to launch, as well as the
machines that they should be run on.

Package Summary

Released Continuous integration Documented

roslaunch is a tool for easily launching multiple ROS nodes locally and remotely
via SSH, as well as setting parameters on the Parameter
Server. It includes options to automatically respawn processes
that have already died. roslaunch takes in one or more XML
configuration files (with the .launch extension) that
specify the parameters to set and nodes to launch, as well as the
machines that they should be run on.

Package Summary

Released Continuous integration Documented

roslaunch is a tool for easily launching multiple ROS nodes locally and remotely
via SSH, as well as setting parameters on the Parameter
Server. It includes options to automatically respawn processes
that have already died. roslaunch takes in one or more XML
configuration files (with the .launch extension) that
specify the parameters to set and nodes to launch, as well as the
machines that they should be run on.

Package Summary

Released Continuous integration Documented

roslaunch is a tool for easily launching multiple ROS nodes locally and remotely
via SSH, as well as setting parameters on the Parameter
Server. It includes options to automatically respawn processes
that have already died. roslaunch takes in one or more XML
configuration files (with the .launch extension) that
specify the parameters to set and nodes to launch, as well as the
machines that they should be run on.

Package Summary

Released Continuous integration Documented

roslaunch is a tool for easily launching multiple ROS nodes locally and remotely
via SSH, as well as setting parameters on the Parameter
Server. It includes options to automatically respawn processes
that have already died. roslaunch takes in one or more XML
configuration files (with the .launch extension) that
specify the parameters to set and nodes to launch, as well as the
machines that they should be run on.

roslaunch uses XML files that describe the nodes that should be run, parameters that should be set, and other attributes of launching a collection of ROS nodes. For a specification of this XML format, please see:

roslaunch was designed to fit the ROS architecture of complexity via composition. Understanding roslaunch's architecture will give you better insight in how to construct your .launch files and better debug remote vs. local launches.

roscore

roscore is a specialization of the roslaunch tool for bringing up the "core" ROS system. For more information, please see the roscore documentation.

Stability/Roadmap

The launch file syntax itself is stable, and every effort will be made to provide backwards compatibility with new features.

The code API of roslaunch is very unstable and should not be used directly. In order to support the new features that are being planned, it may be necessary to make major, incompatible changes to the programmatic API.

There are many new features being planned for roslaunch. These include new features within the launch file syntax, GUI tools for interacting with launch files more effectively, network API, better coordination between separate launch files, and more.

Tutorials

This tutorial describes some tips for writing roslaunch files for large projects. The focus is on how to structure launch files so they may be reused as much as possible in different situations. We'll use the 2dnav_pr2 package as a case study.

Syntax Highlighting

Catkin

The roslaunch_add_file_check CMake macro can be used to check launch files for common errors such as missing arguments, dependencies, packages, or nodes. This is how you would check all *.launch files in a package's launch directory: